HCM City (VNA) – More than 700 athletes on April28 raced the height of the 81-storey skyscraper Landmark 81 in Ho Chi MinhCity’s Binh Thanh district, the highest building in Southeast Asia.
The Race to the Summit, as part of the annual Vertical WorldCircuit (VWC), gathered professional runners from Australia, Poland, Japan, theRepublic of Korea, and Vietnam, among others. To win the race, they had tocomplete 2,400 steps from the 1st to 81st floor of thebuilding, which was considered the second hardest challenge of its kind in theworld this year.
Finishing within 11:35 minutes, Piotr Lobodzinski fromPoland, winner of the VWC World Championship in five consecutive years, toppedthe male category. He was followed by Mark Bourne from Australia with 12:25minutes and Emanuele Manzi, Italian, 13 minutes.
Australian runner Suzy Walsham won the female category with14:36 minutes, followed by Kim Jieun from the RoK (15:02), Laura Manninen fromFinland (15:44). Nguyen Linh Chi from Vietnam came in fifth at 17:34 minutes.Chi was also the first among participating Vietnamese athletes to complete thechallenge.
The race took place on the occasion of the inaugural of the5-star hotel Vinpearl Luxury Landmark 81 at the building.-VNA